Archive for November, 2010

SMH reports today that President Obama presented the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, and the National Medal of Science to leading US scientists and inventors, in a White House ceremony. These awards are said to be the highest honour to be given by the US government.

One of the award winners was Stephan Sasson who was the first builder of the digital camera prototype in 1975. These cameras “revolutionized photography, as all these folks back here can testify,” Obama said to the press.

Awards also went to Federico Faggin, Marcian Hoff and Stanley Mazor, who designed in 1971 the Intel 4004, the California firm’s first commercial microprocessor, and Stanley Prusiner, the man who discovered prions, misfolded proteins that can cause mad-cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.

Some small businesses dropped in rankings when Google changed its search algorithms a few weeks ago.

‘Many local businesses will find Google doesn’t position their entries as high as previously, meaning potential customers will have to scroll further down the pages of results to find them’, said search engine consultant Ash Nallawalla.

For example, a company that might have previously come up higher in the Google search results, now may have other ‘map-based’ entries above it, pushing it lower down the page and putting it below the ‘fold’ (tech-speak for the bottom of the computer screen).

Nallawalla says that businesses above the fold are far more likely to gain the attention, and custom, of people conducting a Google search.

What is the solution? Businesses need to optimise their online presence, ensure they have a physical address on their website, with phone and other relevant contact information.